


When the Dominoes Fall

by sabinelagrande



Series: Emon Nights [1]
Category: Critical Role (Web Series)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Modern Setting, Alternate Universe - Superheroes, Alternate Universe - Superheroes/Superpowers, Canon-Typical Violence, F/M, Masks, Thwarting
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-04-12
Updated: 2017-04-12
Packaged: 2018-10-17 23:45:38
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 6,324
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/10604811
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/sabinelagrande/pseuds/sabinelagrande
Summary: The Twins have a pretty solid thing going, but it doesn't last.





	

**Author's Note:**

  * For [blackglass](https://archiveofourown.org/users/blackglass/gifts).



> This is for a prompt from easily four months ago, but here it is anyway!

"Rake," Vax says quietly, holding out a hand.

Vex and Vax have a pretty good thing going. Emon has a thriving underbelly, and they have long practice in navigating it. They've even learned to navigate it so well that they do without the Clasp, which is almost unheard of. Busting heads and intimidating your average citizen is all well and good, but Vex and Vax are above that now, able to pick and choose their battles. Mostly they choose banks and the pricier jewelry stores, and they do so with a high level of success. They try not to kill people, but it's not a hard and fast rule; rules like that are luxuries that the two of them aren't quite to the level of.

Vex looks at the lock, judging its size. It's not that she doubts that Vax needs a rake; Vax is very good at what he does, but this includes having several rakes. Vex is not as adept at choosing tools as he is, but they're in a tight spot and Vax can't pay attention to them right now.

They kind of do and kind of don't have names. The few times they've made the papers, they've just been called the Twins, which is fine by Vex. From Vex's vanity googling, she knows that some people are trying to get Artemis and Apollo started, but she hopes it doesn't catch on. They probably wouldn't have names at all if Vax didn't insist on wearing elaborate domino masks, which make people make assumptions that they never do when you're wearing a plain old ski mask.

Vex reaches into her hair and plucks out the rake she keeps there for her own use, putting it in Vax's hand. He sets his other pick before quickly running the rake back and forth over the lock's pins, using its brute force until the lock turns.

But still, things are going fairly well. There are probably better, more worthy things they could do with their lives, but being a villain is better than going hungry or languishing in the Clasp's grip.

"We're in," Vax says, swinging the door gently open.

And then Vax finds religion and everything goes haywire.

\--

Two things happen in the same job that interrupt what Vex and Vax have going on. The job is not complicated, robbing a jewelry store that's been advertising their beefed up security, which is really the exact opposite of what they should be doing in this city. They're just going to go, disable the guards, take their shit, and leave.

They're hardly past casing the place when things break down. Vax is on the ground, skulking around to study the guards' movements, while Vex heads to a nearby rooftop to get a wider view of what they're going up against. This is what Vex is trying to do, anyway, until she gets to her perch and finds it occupied. The man standing in her spot doesn't see her at first, and Vex has very little idea what to do.

He's a stranger, but of course she recognizes him; everybody fucking recognizes him. He's Animus, mysterious and controversial, known for appearing from nowhere and administering justice according to his own set of rules. His outfit is beyond iconic, black duster, blue ascot, and beaked mask, and his level of polish leaves Vex looking quite scruffy, even in her best sneaking attire and embellished mask. She is really in some shit if he showed up; she assumed she'd never meet him, doesn't know anyone who's ever known him for longer than the time it takes to get beat up.

"What are you doing here?" Vex asks, because really, what else is there to say?

It's impossible to tell with his mask, but she could swear that she's startled him. "What are _you_ doing here?" he asks, his voice coming out tinny and amplified through his mask.

"I asked you first," she says.

"Upon consideration, I'm fairly sure I'm here to stop you from what you're about to do," he says. His mask moves slightly as he looks her up and down. "You're Artemis."

"If you have to call me something, choose something else," she says.

"Do you have a name, then?" he asks.

"Names are passé, darling," she says, pointedly giving him the same once-over that he gave her. She knows she's not seeing him in his final form, the one wreathed in smoke, both guns blazing, but she's not sure whether that's a thing she wants to see. "You know, guns are _so_ lazy."

"And arrows are endlessly practical," he returns.

They stare at each other for a long moment.

"You're terrible at hand-to-hand, aren't you," Animus says.

"Well, you must be, or you'd have charged me by now," Vex replies.

"Touché," he says. "Though I could say much the same of you, and if I wanted I could certainly shoot you point-blank."

"That wouldn't be very heroic," she says.

"You'll find that I'm not," he says.

"And yet you'd be too noble to take a cut and keep your mouth shut," she says.

"I am at least that heroic," he says.

"More for me," Vex says lightly.

Before she can say anything else, a creature with wide black wings alights on the edge of the roof; both she and Animus draw on it before she remembers it's just Vax. "We have a problem," Vax says, stepping off the ledge and onto the roof itself. He gives Animus a side-eye before folding his wings and walking up to Vex.

"I can't do it," Vax says.

Vex glances back at Animus before turning so that he can't see their lips. "What do you mean you can't do it?" she hisses.

"It's not right," he says. " _She_ doesn't want me to do it."

"A lot of people don't want us to take their things, and you don't let their opinions sway you," she says.

"This is different," he insists. "I can't."

Vex rubs her forehead. "Darling, I was willing to put up with all this Wicca shit-"

"I keep telling you it's not Wicca-" Vax says.

"As long as it didn't interfere with our work, but you're gambling with the rent check right now, so I need you to take a breath, center yourself, and go back to doing your job," she says.

"It's not happening," he says. "You just have to accept that."

"If I may," Animus says, walking towards them.

Vax draws a dagger, lightning fast. "Take one step closer to my sister and you'll be dead before you hit the ground."

"He's good at hand-to-hand," Vex stage-whispers. She sighs. "The job is blown, let's get the hell out of here. Smoke Machine over here probably has friends closing on us as we speak."

"I'm sure they'd love to meet you," Animus says.

"Thanks but no thanks," Vex says. Vax extends his wings again, scooping up Vex and taking off; she can see Animus taking aim, but Vax is smart enough to serpentine, ducking around buildings to cut off his line of sight. A few streets away, they land, booking it through alleys and parking lots to get back to their base.

It's not until they're safely inside with the door locked that Vex turns on Vax. "What the _fuck_ was that?" she demands.

"I don't know," Vax says, sounding genuinely confused.

"I thought you said she was a death goddess!" she says.

"She is," he says. "Maybe She knew the wrong person would die if we went through with it."

"People die, Vax," she says. "We agreed that we were okay with that."

"That made more sense when we were teenagers," he says. "Maybe I can't do it anymore."

"So what do we do?" she asks. "Keep on as usual and then bail at the last second if your Queen doesn't feel like it that day?"

"I don't know," he says. His face shifts. "And what were you doing talking to Animus?"

Vex sighs. "He was at my perch when I got there."

"Which means someone knew our plan," Vax says.

"So we were sloppy this time," she says dismissively, though she knows it's not a thing to dismiss. "It's not like it hasn't happened before."

"Last time we were sloppy, you almost died," he says, and neither of them mention the Raven Queen's role in that event.

"Vax, we're not the kind of people who can go out and get a job at the drugstore," she says, not unkindly. "This is what we do. Do you want to go back to sleeping on the street and running errands for the Clasp?"

"You know I don't," he says. "We're just going to have to be more careful from now on."

"You keep your goddess in check, and we won't have this problem again," she says.

Vax looks unamused. "It doesn't work like that."

"You're just going to have to make it work," Vex says.

He sighs. "I have to go try to talk to Her," he says.

"Do what you need to do," she says. "We can't have another night like this."

"Agreed," he says. He cups a hand around the back of Vex's neck, looking her in the eye. "I'd never put Her over you. You know that, right?"

"I know," she says, laying a hand on his cheek. "I'm just worried, that's all. I'm not used to counting in a third party."

"Us first, Her second," Vax says, with such conviction that Vex can't help but believe him. "But we might need to rearrange a little."

"Yeah, well, I'd appreciate if you'd gently remind her she's the third wheel," she says.

"No promises," Vax says, and then he walks away, headed no doubt to the small shrine he's set up in his bedroom.

When he's gone, Vex puts a hand on the wall, resting her forehead on it. Her mind keeps turning back to Animus, what he was like in close proximity, how different it was than she expected. She keeps thinking about the man in the mask, what she can't see of him and wants to more than she thought she would.

She sighs and pushes away from the wall. It was nothing, and with a little bit of luck, it will never be anything at all.

\--

Vex knows that night changed things, but she doesn't realize how much until they get thwarted.

Normal criminals don't get thwarted. They get stopped, then either arrested or killed. The level of grandstanding involved is a function of the hero or heroes involved, but the criminals are faceless, nameless, of more interest to the police than the public. If they get any designation, it's something like "CLASP PLOT THWARTED", as if they're nothing but cogs in a larger machine. Vex and Vax have been in groups like that before, part of the metaphorical pile of bodies, but they've thus far avoided drawing more specific attention to themselves.

This is, however, the biggest job they've ever tried to pull alone. Emon National Bank has made quite a show of the shipment of gold they'll be moving through town; anybody with half a brain can figure out that this means there's no gold, that it's all a smokescreen for whatever actual shipment is going on. Vex did a little bit of social engineering and figured out exactly what it was, and the fences of Emon are going to have a field day once she and Vax get their hands on the gemstones and jewelry that are actually being transported. Vex is sure all of it is very heavily insured, so everyone wins.

She and Vax have been in place for hours, waiting patiently for the sun to go down so they can leap into action. The guards are starting to filter in, taking up their own positions. It's pathetically easy for them to get on the top of one of the armored trucks, lying flat so that no one sees them. In unison they swing down, kicking the guards off the back of the truck just as the truck starts to move.

Vax activates the magnets in his boots, securing himself to the side of the truck as he picks the lock on the back door. There are more guards inside, and Vex leaves a trail of them, pulling them out one by one and tossing them onto the street. One ends up still armed, and Vex puts an arrow through his shoulder, standing in the back of the truck as it continues on unaware.

They're just about to go for the boxes and bags in the truck when a man bellows, loud enough that it must be audible for blocks and blocks.

_"Vox Machina, fuck shit up!"_

"Fuck," Vax says. "Fuck, fuck, fuck."

 _"Surrender now, Twins!"_ a woman shouts, though she sounds oddly unsure of herself.

"Who the fuck is that?" Vex says. 

"I've heard the name," Vax says. He taps nervously on the side of the truck. "Fuck me running."

"Can we fight them?" she asks.

"Getting the fuck out of here is the better part of valor," he says. He grabs Vex by the waist, stretches out his wings, and gets gone before the whole city is alerted. Looking back, Vex can just see the outline of several figures, standing in a line like heroes do, arrayed against chaos.

The headline the next morning reads "TWINS THWARTED". Vex cuts it out and puts it on the fridge; she honestly doesn't know if it's supposed to be a commemoration or a warning. Either way, neither of them have said anything about it to each other- or indeed said much to each other at all. 

When Vex finally approaches Vax, research in hand, he's in the makeshift gym in their garage. She goes to the boombox and turns down his hair metal, but waits for him to speak.

"So, are we gonna talk about it?" Vax asks, focusing on his pull-ups instead of looking at her.

"I think we have to," Vex says. "They know something about our movements, and I don't think we know enough about them. All I have is what Google told me."

"Run down what we're dealing with," Vax says. His arms flex as he moves, sweat beaded on his skin, and his words are a little labored from lack of breath.

"Up and coming hero outlet, with members as follows." Vex reads out the list, ticking them off on her tablet as she goes. "Goliath, basic super strong type. Keyleth of the Ashari, royalty from another realm with plant magic. Halo, field medic with some combat ability. Bigby, AKA the Meat Man, some kind of musical magic thing. And of course, Animus, who seems to be a new addition and/or slumming it."

Vax lowers himself to the floor and steps away from the pull-up bar, frowning at her. "The Meat Man? Really?"

"I'm just quoting, not approving," she says. "So, basically two against five."

"What's the strategy?" he asks.

She thinks for a moment, tapping her fingers against the casing of the tablet. "Stay high to keep Goliath from attacking. Hit Halo, Bigby, and Keyleth in that order."

"What about Animus?" he says.

"I haven't quite figured him out yet," she says, and she hopes it isn't obvious that she's been thinking about him a lot. "Do whatever you'd do if you had to fight me, only without the emotional component."

"I'd never fight you," Vax says automatically.

"You don't have to pretend you don't know how you'd do it," Vex says, just as readily.

"If we came up in a fight against all of them, we'd be fucked," he says. "We can't let that happen."

"On the bright side, there's at least a seventy-five percent chance they'd turn us in instead of killing us," she says.

"Let's not find out what the other twenty-five is like," he says. He picks up his towel, wiping away sweat. "I'll call in some favors and do some more research. You know what these people are like. Once they get their teeth in something, they don't let go."

"Heroes," Vex says, rolling her eyes, like she's never gotten overly invested in anything in her life, and Vax raises an expressive eyebrow at her.

"Right," he says. He tosses the towel over his shoulder. "Your gym, if you want it."

She sighs. "If I have to," she says, walking to the stereo, "but Mötley Crüe isn't staying."

"I can't make you exercise or have good taste," he says, as Vex puts on Beyoncé and starts to stretch.

\--

True to Vax's instincts, it is not the last time they hear from Vox Machina. Most of their heists go about as before; heroes might rest after a battle well fought, but crime never does. But Vox Machina seems to have taken a shine to them, and maybe a quarter of Vex and Vax's activities include an appearance by one or all of them. 

Vex has no real idea why this particular group has chosen them. Maybe it's fate, maybe Vox Machina just grabbed the first thing they saw, maybe their skills match one another. Still, she's gathering information with every encounter. She knows that Keyleth picks grand gestures that sometimes fail miserably; she knows Goliath's skill is negated if she stays off the ground. She can see how Bigby rallies his team when they need it most, and she knows Halo is connected somehow when she's not physically present, called to by her allies even when she's missing.

The one who sticks in Vex's mind is Animus; she doesn't know how one meeting sunk its hooks into her so deeply, but it did. She turns the matter of him over and over in her head, reconsidering all his angles. Perhaps it's because they're alike in battle, best at a distance. She's long since pegged him as the strategist of the group; this is only partly because she can't see anyone else doing it. He's different from the rest of them, in the game for longer, and it fascinates her how he's thrown in his lot with an up-and-coming but still minor group.

They don't meet again right away. Vex is too careful for that, and she thinks that after that night, he has been too. She supposes his criteria for a good perch must be different than hers, since they are using very different weapons. She's yet to see it in person, but he's started fighting up close, too, drawing a sword; she can't help wondering if she was the impetus for that, if he started training so that he wouldn't be caught out again.

And indeed, when they meet again, she's the one who gets caught out.

It's a cold night, and the chill has long since seeped into Vex's hands, even though she's wearing shooting gloves. She keeps clenching and unclenching them, trying to keep them warm and agile, but it's not really working. Her cloak is tucked in around her, and she just really wishes Vax would move his ass and finish the recon he's running. In a perfect world, her being there at all will be completely unnecessary, and that thought isn't making her any warmer.

"You'll catch your death," an amplified voice says behind her, and Vex whirls around, on her feet with an arrow nocked in seconds.

"Oh, it's you," she says, not moving, but Animus doesn't draw his weapon. "I hate to tell you this, but if you're here to stop a crime, I'm not doing anything illegal."

"Brandishing a deadly weapon might qualify," he says.

She looks at him for a long moment; he hasn't made a movement for his gun, and if he was just coming up here to shoot her she'd be on the ground already. She carefully lowers her bow, taking the arrow and putting it back in her quiver.

"Come to talk, or just enjoying the view?" she asks, and just to prove a point, she steps forward several paces, until they're only a few feet apart.

"Can't it be both?" he says. "Maybe I'd like to get to know my opposite number."

"By all means," Vex says lightly. "I like long walks on the beach, and my turn-ons are good conversation and lots and lots of cash."

"Is that so?" Animus says, and somehow even with the mask she can tell he's smirking.

Emboldened, Vex steps forward again, closing the distance between them, and Animus doesn't move. She can tell he's watching her, the way the size of the mask emphasizes every small movement of his head. Up close, he's several inches taller than her, but he's not as big or imposing as his flowing duster and swirling smoke make him look mid-fight.

"Do you ever consider that anyone could just push this mask right off?" she says, running a finger down the underside of the beaked portion, ending at the top of Animus's ascot. "Seems like such an easy target."

"And this isn't?" he says, thumbing the edge of Vex's domino mask, his fingers ever so gently brushing her cheek. Something in Vex twists, pulse quickening; she's starting to think that he might be as fascinated by her as she is by him.

"I'll tell you a secret, darling," she says. "It's glued on." She puts her finger on the very tip of his beak, pushing it up just an inch, and the bottom of the mask slides up, revealing just a sliver of Animus's throat. She thinks about how easy it would be to slip a blade into it, but she also thinks about pressing her lips to it, pushing the mask up incrementally and kissing along the skin it reveals.

For a moment she thinks he's going to let her do it, then suddenly he turns his head away, leaving Vex's finger just hanging there. She thinks it's because he's come to his senses, but then she notices he's got a hand to his ear. "Roger," he says, and he turns back towards her. "Sorry to break up this magical evening, but I'm needed elsewhere." He reaches out to her, touching his finger to her lips, just a quick touch but so heavy, almost like a kiss. "See you soon," he says, then he runs across the rooftop and leaps off the edge.

She doesn't bother going after him, because she knows he's gone. She licks her lips, and they taste like metal and leather.

She's forgotten all about being cold.

\--

It's thoroughly anticlimactic when things really change; Vex and Vax are robbing a bank when Vex hears Goliath's signature call, too close for comfort.

"Oh, for fuck's sake," Vex says, and she doesn't stop stuffing cash into her bag. "I cannot deal with those assholes today."

Vax leaves the vault, sticking his scanner to the wall so he can see through it. "Looks like they've got the drop on us, sis."

She picks up bags of money with both hands and trudges out of the vault. "I really wanted a manicure," Vex says. "This was going to be fun money."

"Get a move on, and it still might be," he says. They both make their way back into the bank lobby, and Vex realizes that Vox Machina is much closer than she expected. She can see their outlines through the frosted bank doors, and she and Vax both turn to run out the back. The door opens a crack, and something round clacks against the tile floor. There is a flash, a loud noise, a hiss of gas, and before Vex knows it, she's hitting the ground.

When Vex wakes up, her head is throbbing, to the point where she feels a little sick to her stomach. Her first impulse is flight, trying to get away from the flashbang and out of the bank, but she realizes quickly that she's not there anymore, is someplace with something soft underneath her.

In her moment of surprised struggle, she's probably given away the fact that she's not passed out anymore, so she doesn't try to hide it when she looks around. She's in a nice room with no windows; aside from the bed she's lying on, there's a large nightstand, a desk, and a rolling chair. On the nightstand there are medical supplies, on the desk there are two masks, and in the rolling chair there is a man in posh clothing and a blue ascot.

Vex is in over her head for a lot of reasons, but not least of all because she knows who this man is, in and out of his costume.

"My brother's going to murder you," she says to him, by way of greeting.

"I promise to have you home by curfew," he says dryly. "The knockout in 'knockout gas' is not supposed to involve you falling and cracking your head, and for that I apologize."

"Ugh," Vex says. She tries to sit up; her head spins, and she doesn't try to stop him when he pushes her gently back down. "Couldn't you have told me something cooler happened?"

"On my end it was very cool," he says. "There was a grappling hook." He hesitates for a moment. "The police were right behind us. If I'd left you there, they'd have arrested you on the spot, head injury or not."

"What happened to my brother?" Vex asks, alarmed.

"He made it out, and then I outran him," he says. He's not looking at her face, looking at her forehead instead, where he's dabbing at something with a wet cloth, probably blood.

"If you'd just given me up, you wouldn't have had to run at all," she points out.

"I know," he says. "I just had to make sure you got the right kind of medical attention as quickly as possible. And before you say it, yes, he tracked us. I lost him."

"Isn't there a medic on your team?" Vex says suspiciously. "Does your team even know I'm here? Because it certainly seems like it's just you."

"She left before you woke up," he says, and for the life of her Vex can't tell if he's lying. "I thought perhaps you would prefer as few people as possible, in case you revealed any sensitive information."

"Vex'ahlia," she says impulsively, because it seems wrong to sit on it when he's laid so much open for her. "My name is Vex'ahlia."

"That's not what I meant, but thank you," he says. "And what am I going to find if I look you up?"

"Next to nothing," she says. "Especially not compared to what I'll find if I look up Percival de Rolo."

He stills, and Vex wonders whether he knew she'd recognize him; maybe she doesn't seem the type to know enough about the upper echelons to know the survivor of Whitestone on sight. "Call me Percy," he says.

"Then you can call me Vex," she says. She huffs a laugh. "The standard line is that I have to kill you now that you know too much."

The corner of his mouth goes up. "You can certainly try."

He doesn't say anything for a long moment, still methodically cleaning up what Vex assumes is a nasty but ultimately superficial gash on her head; there's no way he doesn't have some kind of medical scanner. She shuts her eyes, because it actually feels kind of nice to be doted on, without the color commentary that Vax would be providing.

She's going to censor a lot of this when she tells Vax.

"What if I paid you?" Percy says, out of nowhere.

She frowns, opening her eyes. "What?"

"What if I paid you for your services?" Vex raises an eyebrow at him, and Percy blushes. "Not _those_ services. You have skills that would be very valuable in a crime fighting capacity. If you're only doing this for the money, I have plenty of it that I'm not afraid to spend."

"I'm not in the market for a sugar daddy," Vex says.

Percy reaches into his pocket and pulls out a gold-edged business card; all it has on it is a pair of crossed pistols and a phone number. "Then at least promise me you'll take this. Use it if you change your mind."

She slips it into her pocket. "If I start selling myself, you'll be the first person I call."

"See that you do," he says. He looks contemplative for a moment, like he's considering his words. "You should know that I'm not the kind of person that saves people for selfless reasons."

"Then what is the reason?" Vex asks.

"I want to put you to work," he says.

"You already told me that part," she says. "There's something else."

"You intrigue me," Percy says after a pause. "I want to figure you out."

"I'm not a puzzle, dear," Vex says, telling herself that that statement was threatening and not sexy, and certainly not threatening _and_ sexy. "You'll find I'm quite like I appear on the surface."

"I don't even think you think that," he says.

She doesn't, but she doesn't care to admit it. "And what do you hope to achieve?"

"I don't know yet," he says. "It depends on what I figure out."

He starts to move away, and Vex grabs him by the shirt. She pulls him down and does what she wanted to do on that rooftop, what she might well have done if they hadn't been interrupted. He's not as surprised as she expected, kissing her back with only the slightest hesitation. It's one of the better kisses she's had, and she has to make herself pull away, ignoring the way he tries to chase after her for a moment before he gets it back together.

"Figure that out," she tells him.

"You may have to give me that prompt twice," he says, bending down. "I need time to consider all the angles."

"Let me refresh your memory," she says, kissing him again. She doesn't stop this time, threading her fingers into his hair. He gets out of the chair without breaking contact, sitting next to her and putting his hands on either side of her body. Her other arm snakes around his waist, and she pulls him in, awkward position be goddamned.

They kiss like that for an age, long enough that Vex knows they must be alone- that or he has the most permissive teammates in the world. It's only when Vex reaches for his belt buckle that Percy finally pulls away.

"Sorry," he says, kissing her one more time, then there is a hiss of gas and Vex blacks out again.

When she opens her eyes, she's sitting under a tree in a park, intact right down to her bow and mask.

"Asshole," she says, and it comes out more fond than she thought it would.

\--

And then everything goes wrong, because everything was always going to go wrong. That's just how it goes with a life of villainy; you bob and weave and try to stay one step ahead of everyone, but you can't do that forever. Vex has always known this, so when it happens, it doesn't shock her.

It has nothing to do with Vox Machina, which is surprising given that they've been so active in the twins' lives these last few weeks. It has everything to do with the Clasp. She and Vax didn't exactly leave on the best of terms, and the Clasp has often been among the many things they've been trying to stay ahead of.

It's almost embarrassing, really. They spent so much time worrying about those above them on the scale of morality that they took for granted the people below; when five Clasp goons just up and open fire on them in the middle of an otherwise uneventful jewelry heist, Vex is blindsided. She's also shot in two places, which isn't good. Vax does a little better, but a sixth goon comes at him with a knife. Vax has to tangle with him, and the guy gets in a few good gashes before Vax can nab Vex and take off with his wings.

They make it out of the jewelry store and into the air, and Vex doesn't see the sniper until much too late. Vex watches as a bullet pierces Vax's wing; he yells in pain, and then they're tumbling onto the nearest roof. Vax goes down hard and is out instantly, and Vex is not much better off, landing on top of him. She shakes him, trying to wake him up, trying to convince herself that he's just laying there with his eyes closed and not unconscious. Vex tries to move, to give him some air, but she finds that she doesn't have the strength.

She realizes at that moment that it's time to pull the ripcord. 

Vex manages to get to her phone, scrolling through her contacts for the number Percy gave her. She put it in her phone because of course she did, and she doesn't stop to think about why before she hits the call button. There is only one ring before someone picks up.

"Hello?" Percy's voice says.

"Percy? It's Vex'ahlia, dear," she says, trying to keep her tone light even as she wants to scream from the pain. "If you'll get me an extraction in the next five minutes, I'll let you pay me _and_ my brother as much as your little heart desires."

"Are you hurt?" Percy says, and bless him, he sounds actually concerned.

"That's why you only have five minutes," she says. "Roof of the Bridgewater Building. Don't keep me waiting." She doesn't even hang up, just drops the phone, and she can hear Percy still trying to talk to her. It's sweet, really, but if that extraction doesn't come before the Clasp does, all the sweetness in the world will get him nowhere.

She rolls onto her back and looks up at the sky, where it's just starting to rain; it feels good against her skin, cooling, and she tries not to look at how it makes the blood from Vax's wounds run onto the unforgiving concrete of the roof. This isn't how Vex wanted to go, but she supposes there are worse ways. In the end, isn't it all the same?

There is the sound of a helicopter approaching, and Vex looks up. She can't really see anything, just the silhouette of it against the sky. Someone is shouting, but she can't make it out, just loud noise that cuts in and out. She's so very tired, too tired to concentrate, and maybe if she just shuts her eyes for a moment, she'll be fine.

The last thing she sees before she goes under is a hand reaching down to her, a head haloed in soft white light.

\--

"Again," Vax says. "Keep your hands higher and your shoulders down." Percy comes after him again with his daggers, but Vax tags him in the side. "You don't have as much reach as you do with a sword. Stop thinking about fighting with one weapon." He adjusts Percy's stance, then squares off against him. "Again."

Vex sits watching the scene, until a shoulder bumps hers. She looks up, and Keyleth is holding out a cup of coffee.

"Want some?" Keyleth says.

"Always," Vex says, taking it. "Thank you, dear."

Keyleth sits down beside her, drinking her own coffee and watching Percy and Vax spar. "Is he getting any better?" she asks Vex.

Vax and Percy break apart; Percy is covered with sweat, his training clothes sticking to him, and Vex takes a moment to admire the sight. "I think he's coming along nicely," Vex says. "I'm not sure Vax agrees."

Vex stands up, offering Percy his water bottle and a towel when he walks over, and he takes a drink before speaking. "What did I do to earn such friendly service?"

She pecks him on the cheek. "I'm yours until the check bounces."

"Lucky for me, I'm rolling in it," Percy says. "But I think you're actually doing it to assuage your guilt over laughing at me."

"I would never feel guilty about laughing at you, darling," Vex says.

About this time, Pike comes in, holding a folded piece of paper. "You look pensive," Keyleth says, as Pike joins them.

"Something interesting came in," Pike says, holding the paper out, and Percy takes it. "We got a letter from someone who says he wants to join."

"We have a mailbox?" Vax says, frowning.

"No," Pike says. "That's why I'm interested."

"From the desk of Taryon Darrington," Percy reads. "Doesn't ring a bell."

"Wait," Vax says. "Darrington, as in the Truscan mafia Darringtons?"

"I don't think it's a very common name," Keyleth says uneasily.

"I'm going to take a shower," Percy says, folding up the paper and handing it back to Pike. "We're all going to have a drink, and we're going to decide what in god's name to do about that letter."

"I think that's a good idea," Pike says. "I have a call to make that should help."

"I am also going to take a shower," Vax says, "which will help you all more than you know."

"I'll see about the drinks," Keyleth says, sounding more excited than the other two.

Pike, Vax, and Keyleth scatter, leaving just Percy and Vex. "And what are you going to do?" Percy asks her. "Everyone else seems to have a plan."

"Oh, I don't know," she says coyly. "Maybe you have some idea."

Percy looks her up and down, then shakes his head. "I don't know what I did to deserve you."

"You were mysterious and sexy and had a lot of money," Vex says. "It happened to be my luck that you had other qualities I admire."

"Come on," he says, ushering her away towards his shower. "We really do have things to do."

**Works inspired by this one:**

  * [[Podfic] When the Dominoes Fall](https://archiveofourown.org/works/13056852) by [Jadesfire](https://archiveofourown.org/users/Jadesfire/pseuds/Jadesfire)




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